‘Teen Wolf’ Renewed for Season 5; Will be 20 Episodes

The fourth season of MTV’s successful supernatural drama, Teen Wolf — very loosely based on the 1985 film starring Michael J. Fox — is well underway. MTV aired the fifth episode ‘I.E.D.’ this past Monday (read our review), and has seven episodes left before the fourth season concludes its 12-episode run in early September. Previous seasons of Teen Wolf have usually run for 12 episodes, with the exception of season 3, which was split into two 12-episode arcs — a total of 24 episodes (part one ran last summer, while part two earlier this year).

To promote the current season of Teen Wolf, multiple members of the cast attended the show’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con — its fifth in as many years. Creator and executive producer, Jeff Davis was joined by Tyler Posey, Dylan O’Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, Shelley Hennig, and Dylan Sprayberry. They debuted a mid-season trailer and revealed some news that certainly pleased the fan-filled audience.

During the panel, it was announced MTV had renewed the supernatural drama about teenaged werewolves (among other creatures) for a fifth season that will run for 20 episodes. The recently greenlit season, like the third, will be split into two parts. Davis and the cast members did not reveal a premiere date for the fifth season, though Teen Wolf has customarily premiered in the summer. Based on the shooting schedule from last year — the cast started filming 3B roughly 10 days after SDCC 2013 — it’s a safe bet that season 5 won’t premiere until summer 2015.

Whether another extended season of Teen Wolf is a good or bad thing largely depends on viewers’ opinions of how the show has handled its most recent seasons. For the first two and a half years of Teen Wolf, the cast and crew — especially Davis, who is the head writer of the series — had plenty of time to rest and plan ahead during breaks.

However, the second half of season 3 as well as season 4 were created on a tighter schedule because there was less of a hiatus between finishing one run and beginning the next. Whether these seasons have been lacking is a matter of opinion. We have been a little disappointed by the lack of explanation this season concerning Derek Hale’s (Hoechlin) brief trip to the past and back to the future — as well as the berserkers — in episode 2, ‘117’.

There are seven episodes left in season 4, which is plenty of time to wrap up loose ends from earlier this year. Additionally, some of the footage from the mid-season trailer (watch it below) revealed we would finally find out exactly who and what is Deputy Jordan Parrish (Ryan Kelley). Considering the show has been dropping hints about his supernatural creature status since season 3, it’s fair to say Teen Wolf occasionally takes its time with unravelling the mysteries the series sets up and answering the viewer’s questions.